My son's Xbox 360 slim (core unit) all of a sudden started having a problem. Whenever we turn the machine on, it goes through it's normal swoosh routine, and then after that it gets to the screen where it's about to load the dashboard, and it just basically stays on that screen and you can't do anything.

I've been googling today trying to find out what to do, and a lot of the suggestions I get are to clear the cache. However, I can't get to the part where I can select system settings and clear cache, because it doesn't actually get to the point where the dashboard will load. It's before the dashboard has loaded.

Is there any way to clear the cache before the dashboard actually loads ?

Or any other suggestions ? ( it's out of warranty, and spending any $$$ to fix this is probably a bad idea. I'd probably just buy another 360 from Craigslist or something if it came down to it..)

Is there a hard drive in the unit? If there is, try taking it out and booting the system up to see if it'll get to the dashboard.

No hard drive. It's one of those 4 gigs of built in storage core systems, or whatever. They did have a couple of USB sticks that they had plugged into it. I tried taking out all those sticks, and I tried it with the sticks inside it. Unfortunately, it just never makes it to the actual dashboard. It does the Xbox Logo splash intro thing, and it actually gets through that just fine, but then after that, it's like this greyish white screen, with a little white circle spinning around, which basically means "please wait", and that circle basically keeps spinning forever. It doesn't totally freeze, it just stays like that for a super long time. It's hanging at a certain point in the dashboard boot up.

I wish there was some way to "reset" the console without needing to get into the dashboard.

Have you tried disconnecting the ethernet cable (if you are going wired)?

For the kids room, they just use wireless.

I just have to keep doing some google searches on it, might figure out something. Either that or I might try to see how much a repair place would charge to get it back up and running. I could probably buy a used slim like this for like $80 cash, but then I could end up with another one that could break at any given time.

I have not experienced any problem with my Xbox 360. And I am currently playing Darksiders 2 pretty hard. Great game and awesome graphics on the Xbox 360. It was hinted in the article that Microsoft was intentionally gimping support for Xbox 360 to force trade up to their new console. I certainly hope they are not doing something that suicidal with their largest install base. Nor do I believe it.

I have not experienced any problem with my Xbox 360. And I am currently playing Darksiders 2 pretty hard. Great game and awesome graphics on the Xbox 360. It was hinted in the article that Microsoft was intentionally gimping support for Xbox 360 to force trade up to their new console. I certainly hope they are not doing something that suicidal with their largest install base. Nor do I believe it.

That would mean they would be targeting individual members which is highly unlikely. Had no sues with my 360s in the home either.

Could be an overheat, might need to remove the heat sinks and clean it up, apply new thermal compound and put it back together. They will not always toss a red ring due to overheat.

I have recovered several 360's by doing this but obviously it is not always the issue since there are so many variables.

I read about one that had a similar issue and the guy put a 16gb USB stick in the front and it fired all the way up (that one left me curious but he insisted it worked on his 360 when nothing else did)...?